#RENO — A private investigator who used GPS devices to secretly track the vehicles of Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve and a county commissioner ahead of the 2002 election asked the Nevada Supreme Court late Friday to overturn a judge's order that he identify the client who hired him.
#Sparks police determined it was purchased by McNeely and ex-Washoe County Commissioner Vaughn Hartung joined the suit in February under similar circumstances.
#Lawyers for McNeely said in Friday's appeal to the state's high court that divulging the name of a client who paid him to spy on the politicians would violate the long-accepted and expected confidentiality of a "private investigator-client relationship."
#The attorneys said Washoe District Judge David Hardy had erroneously rejected McNeely's argument earlier this month that the client's name was a "trade secret" protected under Nevada law. They likened the stealth nature of the relationship to the "secret sauce" in a prized recipe.
#"Clients of private investigators expect confidentiality," attorney Ryan Gormley wrote in a 31-page appeal filed Friday.
#"Without that confidentiality, the business will fail. Thus, the protection of client identity creates significant economic value for both defendants and the private investigation industry as a whole," he said.
#Another lawyer filed a motion this week to halt the proceedings on behalf of an anonymous John Doe who said he hired McNeely in an effort to combat corruption in government.
#The document attorney Jeffery Barr filed said John Doe has a First Amendment right to anonymously investigate elected officials.
#It said Doe had not broken any laws or disseminated any of the information gathered on his behalf and never was aware or instructed McNeely to place GPS trackers on vehicles.
#Judge Hardy on Thursday agreed to put the case on hold while McNeely pursued appeal avenues, a stipulation to which all the parties had agreed.
#The tracking device was on Schieve's vehicle for at least several weeks and on Hartung's vehicle for several months, their lawsuit says.
#Schieve said McNeely trespassed onto her property to install the device, which a mechanic noticed while working on her vehicle last year in the thick of campaign season, about two weeks before she won re-election for mayor in November.
#Hartung also won re-election but since has resigned to accept an appointment as chairman of the Nevada Transportation Commission.
#Hardy said in his May 4 ruling that the use of a GPS tracking device to monitor the movements of a person could be ''a tortious invasion of privacy.''
#McNeely's appeal said the Supreme Court's intervention is necessary to provide clarity to state law industry wide.
#"In the context of the private investigator-client relationship, the secrecy of the relationship between the private investigator and client is precisely what makes the relationship valuable to the business,'' the appeal said.
#"Because, without the secrecy, there would be no relationship," it said. "The confidentiality is the secret sauce."